This is not your usual spy story but Don Burns has written characters that are entertaining and likeable. I had not read the first two books in the series but Burns does a good job of introducing Skip Moore and his best friend James, rommates who have dead-end jobs. James is always thinking of ways they can make money though these sceems often backfire. Skip works for a company that installs security systems and has just landed a huge job to put an entire new system in Synco System. Unfortunately, a cute girl from Skip’s past, who works at Synco, is also offering Skip extra money to pretend she is his girlfriend. The problem, Skip has a girlfriend and this girl is having an affair with the married boss of Synco Systems who is married. Skip accepts but does tell his girlfriend.

Things become more complicated when James comes to help install the equipment. You see, James is one of those guys who has “bright” ideas and manages to get Skip in other his head. They rent surveillance equipment and soon realize they are being followed by a GPS system, that Synco is involved in secret government contracts, and nothing is as it appears. Can Skip and James manage to install the equipment, get the bonuses and manage not get killed?

Burns keeps the action moving with plenty of danger and intrigue along with humor. You are rooting for these two unlikely spies and you keep guessing until the very end. Burns has written a book with quirky amateur detectives and I plan on going back and reading the first two in this series.

Reviewed on 03/25/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Janice Hidey

Don Brun's characters come into the story fully fledged, at least they appear to be, although from the Prologue it would suggest the story is being told by a dead man. Nevertheless, the characters at the beginning are definitely like comfy socks, well-worn and comfortable, and so they should, this is the third book in the "Stuff" series.

Still acting in their high school personae, these two bumbling lifelong friends are still chasing the American Dream.  Even with Skip's Business School training he is still floundering in the security business he is now working for, while James works for Cap’n Crab.

An underachiever, Skip is put in charge of installing security for a government department (a big secret everyone seems to know), the Department of Defense, and it begins to look like they may finally be getting somewhere in life.  He hires his crew, including James, and as an afterthought he also hires their neighbour who has not particularly been of interest to them, but seemed to have some knowledge of the equipment.

Skip's first order of business though is to play the part of boyfriend to the boss' girl-friend to throw his wife off the scent of infidelity.  The plot is complicated and fun, I loved the interaction of all the characters, including those who have made their first appearance in this book.  I am at a slight loss because I have not read the first two, but this works just as well as a stand-alone and is a very enjoyable and fast read.

However, Skip is no sooner introduced to the project than the first body turns up his feet under his desk and is found laid out behind said desk, very dead. Then they learn that other people on the government project have gradually gone missing. To complicate matters more, there are some very strange characters populating the book, and more spy intelligence equipment is soon purchased, or borrowed in order to get to the bottom of things.  Skip is overwhelmed with women wanting his attention, not a common state.  James is the Hardy Boys fan who is the catalyst to getting the equipment, but who to spy on? There are so many possibilities, not to mention that they are being tracked themselves.  

Overall, this is definitely an entertaining book, complete with espionage, mystery, murder, spies spying on spies, and a romp that kept me reading. It was hard to put the book down. I most certainly will read the first two in the series.

Reviewed on 01/10/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Betty Gelean